1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for displaying stereoscopic two-dimensional image and an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various attempts have been made to stereoscopically reproduce image information by various methods for the purpose of improving visibility and amusement features. Generally, binocular parallax is one physiological factor allowing a human being to view an object stereoscopically. As a method of reproducing a stereoscopic image on the basis of the binocular parallax, a polarization method is known in which a viewer wears polarized glasses and views left and right disparity images based on mutually different polarized states. However, the wearing of the polarized glasses constitutes a troublesome drawback to the viewer.
As a method of displaying a stereoscopic image which does not use polarized glasses, a lenticular lens method is known. The is a technique in which a plurality of screens are formed as latent images on one screen, the plurality of screens are viewed through a translucent screen in which semicylindrical lenses of fixed widths are connected in the horizontal direction, so as to enable stereoscopic representation or representation of moving images. Namely, images which are obtained by dividing each of the plurality of images into stripes in the vertical direction in correspondence with the pitches of the semicylindrical lenses are arrayed regularly, and stereoscopic vision is realized on the basis of the focal position of each lens which changes due to the direction in which the screen is viewed and the distance and on the basis of how the image disposed there is viewed. Specifically, for the reproduction of a stereoscopic image, alternately arrayed stripe images are supplied to both eyes of the viewer from two left and right disparity images corresponding to both eyes of the viewer by using the lenticular lenses, so as to allow a stereoscopic image to be recognized.
A conventional apparatus for displaying stereoscopic two-dimensional image using the method described above is disclosed in JP-A-10-221644.